


Unintended Consequences of Cheating Death, Traveling in Time, and Vanquishing Dark Lords Before Your Parents Were Even Born

by RedHorse



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-14
Updated: 2020-03-14
Packaged: 2021-02-28 19:01:06
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,102
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23142091
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RedHorse/pseuds/RedHorse
Summary: Harry used his Master of Death empowerment to bend time and kill Tom Riddle before he became Voldemort. He'd known that could tear apart and rearrange reality, but while he's been able to take leaving his friends, murdering Tom Riddle at the sunset of his innocence, the rearrangement of the cosmos, and his apparent immortality in stride, there's something about Sirius Black at any age that will always make him feel all too human.
Relationships: Sirius Black/Harry Potter
Comments: 31
Kudos: 254
Collections: Problematic Ships Flash Fest





	Unintended Consequences of Cheating Death, Traveling in Time, and Vanquishing Dark Lords Before Your Parents Were Even Born

**Author's Note:**

  * For [jadejabberwock](https://archiveofourown.org/users/jadejabberwock/gifts).
  * In response to a prompt by [jadejabberwock](https://archiveofourown.org/users/jadejabberwock/pseuds/jadejabberwock) in the [March2020](https://archiveofourown.org/collections/March2020) collection. 



> **Prompt:**
> 
> Sirius wants to be excited for his final year at Hogwarts, but Remus has been spending every waking hour studying for his Newts, Peter has been oddly squirrely, and James cannot stop mooning at Evans who finally gave in and started dating him over the summer. 
> 
> He's decided to unravel the mystery of the new DADA teacher to take his mind off things. Professor Harry Jameson wields a wand like he was born to it and blushes everytime Sirius makes a comment with any level of innuendo in class. Seducing him will be a piece of cake. 
> 
> Age reversal Harry/Sirius

At first it's harmless. Sirius just likes being a teacher's pet, and he's not so much a shameless flirt as an accidental one, it's kind of his communication style. And, the DADA professor is hot. Not in a super obvious way. No, it's worse, he's got an aura of mystery, a cool scar, and fingers that are pornographically nimble. Sirius notices on the first day, when Professor Jameson cocks his head, reaches out and rolls Blake Greengrass's wand handle just below the grip -- a minute adjustment to his position that makes the spell Blake'd been struggling with suddenly fly out of his wandtip like fire from torch -- and then he can't _unnotice_ it. He's been considering fumbling his own grip ever since, just to see Professor Jameson's hands do _that_ again, up close, but so far his pride won't let him.)

Sirius doesn't really think anything could come of his apparent crush. Not until the day before Halloween when Professor Jameson seems particularly distant and brooding. He's occasionally funny and kind, but he always stops himself in the middle of it, like he was briefly possessed by an alter ego. Sirius likes both versions, but most of his daydreams are the moments where these two faces of his professor blur together, where Professor Jameson is both sweet _and_ fierce, possibly while Sirius has his hand in his --

"Alright, class," Professor Jameson calls, interrupting Sirius' budding daydream, which is honestly likely for the best. "Line up here." He indicates the front of the classroom. That's where he normally positions them for dueling, but this time he gestures them into a single line, shoulder to shoulder.

James and Lily are being gross, talking in low voices and, Sirius swears, James is _giggling_ , so he puts as much space as possible between them, going to the far end of the line next to Black Greengrass, whose borderline magical incompetence always makes Sirius look especially proficient by comparison. 

"Now, you're in your last year here in school, and though some of you might say that DADA is 'an irrelevant skill' given the sustained peace we've been lucky enough to enjoy the past few decades" -- Sirius shot an incredulous glance down the row toward Lily; he was sure that phrase was a direct quote from her -- "it's an unfortunate reality that peace will not last forever. So."

He cast a dense net of warding in front of them with an effortlessness that would have stolen Sirius' breath even if he wasn't already half in misguided love.

"This ward is a root reversal. Who knows what that means?"  
  
Sirius knew, but so did several others; it wasn't showing off to answer the questions someone else could. He kept his hand at his side while a half-dozen others eagerly went up. Professor Jameson called on one of them.

"It's a ward that's built around another spell. It feeds on the same magic and is vulnerable to the same counterspells."  
  
"Yes. And what will undo it entirely?"  
  
Fewer hands. Sirius was surprised to see any at all. He knew this answer, too, because he passed summers studying obscure theories in his ancestors' moldering library to avoid his family.   
  
"Incapacitating the caster," said James.

"Actually, no," Professor Jameson said, his voice a little stilted, like he didn't want to tell James he was wrong. "That would work on a traditional spellcast ward, but not a root reversal. It's like a ward anchored with runes; it can self-sustain." He cast a vividly-bright _Lumos_ with his wand to demonstrate that it was unfettered by the ongoing ward. "Anyone else?"

Sirius raised his hand. Professor Jameson's gaze settled on him, heavy and warm. His eyes were almost black, but they glittered with an indeterminable color when Sirius stared long enough. A glamor, but a flawless one. 

"The root hex."  
  
"Yes," Professor Jameson said, a smile tugging at the corner of his mouth. Then he turned abruptly and swept a gaze over the entire class as he stepped out from between their formation and the ward. "Whoever can cast the hex and dismantle the ward can have an automatic Outstanding on their exam this Friday without sitting for it at all."

They got to casting. Sirius considered the ward for a minute, watching the bombardment of spells crash and dissipate over it as his classmates threw every hex they knew, hoping to land a lucky guess.

Sirius took a step backward, pocketed his wand, and rested his chin in his hand as he studied the tapestry of magic as it rippled under the barrage of spells like a sail in gentle wind and just as unbothered.

"You're not even going to try?"  
  
Professor Jameson's voice was warm and close. Sirius turned with a start. Standing behind him, a step away, Professor Jameson seemed smaller than he always did at the front of the room or assisting a classmate. Sirius probably had an inch on him. The realization struck him low in his gut, made him briefly bold. He sidestepped toward Professor Jameson and heard his sharp intake of breath, but he didn't step away. Sirius still kept his gaze fixed casually on the display before them, the fruitless casting, the unblemished ward.

"Maybe after they tucker themselves out," he said. "I already know it's pointless. None of the Latinate spells are going to work, and I only know a few Arabic hexes, which James will try sooner or later, but I'm sure they're wrong too."

"I suppose it wasn't fair to use something outside the whole class's retinue," Professor Jameson admitted, sounding distracted. Sirius risked a sidelong glance and found, sure enough, his professor's eyes were lingering with unmistakably prurient interest in the vicinity of Sirius' collarbones, rather than with academic interest on the class attempting the exercise. 

"Then why did you?" Sirius murmured. He leaned his head nearer, as though the answer to the innocuous question was a secret only for him.

Professor Jameson's eyes lifted to Sirius' and for a brief and shattering moment Sirius saw their color, green as the fringe of moss at lakeside in summer and as hauntingly familiar.

"Because I do what I like," he said, quick and low, then frowned like he hadn't meant to. 

"So do I," Sirius whispered before Professor Jameson could retract the statement, and leaned a final inch inward so that the hips touched for a tiny, electric moment.

An unmistakable blush burned deep in the dark bronze skin of Professor Jameson's cheeks, a flare of emotion that was gone as quickly as it appeared but fed Sirius' reckless hope into a ravenous inferno.


End file.
